ESSA State Plan Feedback

Colorado's ESSA State Plan Public Comment Process

In order to demonstrate that Colorado meets the requirements of ESSA and to access the funding allocated to the state, CDE must submit a plan to the United States Department of Education for approval. Fundamental to the requirements of the ESSA plan is that the department engages in meaningful consultation with a broad range of education stakeholders in developing the plan. As part of this process, CDE conducted and participated in numerous stakeholder consultation events, and, after a draft of the plan was been completed, made that plan available for public comment. The state plan draft was open for public comment for 30 days, beginning on Friday, February 10, 2017, and closing on Monday, March 13, 2017. CDE also posted a draft in Spanish on February 24, and accepted comments in the Spanish language survey through March 27, 2017.

The comments received were reviewed and addressed in the plan as appropriate. CDE was committed to using the comments and feedback we received on the plan in multiple ways—including in implementation efforts and providing feedback to districts as they think about how to implement ESSA. Even if every comment is not reflected in the final plan, they will be heard and considered in many other contexts.

Feedback Received on Colorado’s ESSA State Plan Draft

Feedback on Colorado’s ESSA State Plan Draft was captured through multiple avenues. Nine different surveys were created to obtain feedback online. Respondents were able to react to the complete draft plan in a single full-length survey, or by individual section via shorter surveys. Each survey contained questions focused on specific decision points, along with open-ended responses. Respondents were also able to submit letter responses through an upload on each survey, by e-mail, or in hard copy to the Federal Programs office at CDE. Additional online responses were also submitted via the ESSA Hub Committee Public Comments survey. A notice to provide public comment was distributed the week of February 11. A sample of the notice distributed to stakeholders can be viewed here.

This document contains the public comments received via the online surveys. Personally identifiable information is redacted except in cases where respondents included it as part of their comments. Any submissions that did not contain comments were not included in this document.